Bulls Target AthenaHealth Before Confab

The bulls are targeting AthenaHealth before its big investor day Thursday.

OptionMonster's real-time systems detected buying in the December 65 calls yesterday, with traders initially paying 25 cents and later more than 35 cents. This call volume barely reached 1,100 contracts but was still almost twice the previous positioning, a noteworthy move ahead of Thursday's meeting with analysts and shareholders.

The long calls lock in an entry price of $65 on the shares and could therefore generate some big gains if the stock rallies. But if it doesn't, the options will expire worthless.

Analysts have already weighed in: Avondale expects a expects a rally to $70 and Piper Jaffray has a strong outlook, while Raymond James is more cautious.

AthenaHealth ended the day off 0.07 percent at $59.89, but has been running higher since trading near $40 in June. AthenaHealth is a business-services company that provides billing and other services to medical practices.

Even though Tuesday's activity was relatively small, it was still enough to push total volume in the name to 5 times its daily average.